A BBC documentary about teenage sex which follows a girl hoping to lose her virginity has been branded a 'freak show'.

The hour-long programme, which
includes the F-word and discussions about oral sex and sex aids, is due
to be screened on BBC3 on Thursday.

But the Corporation is under pressure not to screen Cherry Healey: Like A Virgin, which is scheduled to go out immediately after the 9pm watershed.

'The show is ­terrible, almost a freak show,' Vivienne Pattison, of TV watchdog Mediawatch, told the Sunday Express. 'It’s also irresponsible, inappropriate, disturbing and even exploitative towards some of those featured in it.

'For a programme clearly aimed at a teenage audience it is extremely irresponsible not to include any ­discussion of safe sex.'

Mediawatch believes there is a danger the Ofcom code could be flouted by using material harmful to the 'moral development' of under 18-year-olds.

Former minister Ann Widdecombe has joined Ms Pattison in condemning the programme, which is part of the BBC's Sex Season.

She said: 'The BBC should not screen this
programme. It seems to me that they are just trying to set new
boundaries and to do this at 9pm when a lot of young people will still
be up is horrendous.'

Shamed: Russell Brand and Jonathan who had to make an apology to Andrew Sachs over an offensive prank phone call

Ms Pattison, who is to make an official complaint to the BBC and Ofcom, claimed the show was 'prurient and exploitative'.

She added: 'It
is extraordinary that in following a teenager getting ready to lose her
virginity, a bikini wax is filmed as an essential part of her
preparation but condoms are not even mentioned.

Ban it: Ann Widdecombe has urged the BBC not to screen the show

'The
programme promises "essential truths amongst the tales of sex and
debauchery, to see if losing your virginity is about more than just
­having sex for the first time".

'However,
it delivers an inconclusive mix of titillating detail and voyeuristic
confessional.'

The BBC was fined £150,000 for breaching Ofcom's code when Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand used offensive language during prank calls to Andrew Sachs on Radio 2.

The controversial programme begins with Healey, 31, a
former Cheltenham Ladies’ College pupil, reading from her diary when she
was 16. She reads: “I’m going to **** Ed senseless.'

It introduces a young man,
Dan, from a jazz band who shows her a condom described as a 'willy hat'
and jokes with her about sexual positions.

She
then hosts a discussion with a group of young men, one of whom claims
he had oral sex with a woman outside McDonalds.

Beth Taylor, a 17-year-old virgin, is filmed having a bikini
wax before going on holiday.

Ms Pattison said: “She is packed off to Lanzarote to lose her virginity without even a condom.'

Ms Widdecombe told the Sunday Express: 'It is difficult to see how parents and teachers have any chance at all of getting young people to behave responsibly if this is the sort of stuff the BBC is promoting.

'It will not help with efforts to reduce teenage pregnancy rates in Britain, which are the highest in Europe.'

A Church of England spokesman claimed the programme was likely to anger people who believed that sexual activity should be confined within a faithful, heterosexual marriage.

A BBC spokeswoman said: 'Cherry Healey: Like A Virgin adheres to BBC editorial guidelines and is scheduled appropriately with a strong language warning prior to transmission.'